Simple Life
by music-is-love10
Summary: She was driving through a little town called Tree Hill, getting to know with the place that was going to be her home for the next 3 weeks or so, when her car sputtered and wheezed to a stop, right outside of a place called Keith Scott Body Shop. AU Leyton
1. Chapter 1

I don't own the Carolina Liar song, Simple Life. Nor do I own One Tree Hill or any of the characters.

This is an AU story, Peyton's from LA and she's here to sign Mia's band when she meets Lucas.

- Keith's alive; him and Karen are engaged (that's probably not going to play a _huge_ role in this story)

- Nathan and Haley are together, and they have Jaime.

- I don't know if I want Brooke and Lucas together, but regardless, Brooke, Peyton and Haley will all be friends in this story.

* * *

She was driving through the back roads of a little town called Tree Hill, getting acquainted with the place that was going to be her home for the next three weeks or so. She'd gotten in from LA about four hours ago and found the small town to be much more endearing than she suspected, feeling instantly comfortable. As always, her Comet went wherever she did, so it was no surprise that after 18 hours and 34 minutes away from her car, Peyton Sawyer jumped in and began driving.

Music on, top down, nothing but her and the road, Peyton was really in her element. The only other places where she felt more comfortable were in her house when she was drawing, or at a show, when she discovered a really good band and the feeling of the music sent chills through her veins. She sighed, running a hand through her hair; she enjoyed this. The streets in LA were no where near as quiet and silence was hard to come by, it was hard to be alone with your thoughts and clear your head when someone was honking obnoxiously or shouting through the streets. So when the silence overcame her, she was taken aback at first and didn't know what to do with her self, but then she became accustomed to it. She shut off her cell phone, closed the laptop and virtually cut off all contact with the world. Until tomorrow she was going to savor all the silence she could get.

A mixture of curiosity, hunger, and a little bit of intuition caused Peyton to pull off the back road and land in the center of Tree Hill. As she pulled off the road with a bend by the river, she made a mental note to visit there more often. She didn't know how or why, but she knew that the road was going to mean something to her. For about 5 minutes, she drove as an observer, watching people and the way they interacted, just taking in the quaint simplicity of Tree Hill, North Carolina. She kept driving, taking in everything she saw, but letting the music wash over her in a calming effect. Everything from the bittersweet smell of the salty air to the beautiful view in this town made her feel happy and tranquil, it was hard to come by a place as nice as this in LA. No sooner than when she felt calmer than she had in years, her car started sputtering, smoking and wheezing to a stop.

"Shit!" she groaned. Peyton put her head on the steering wheel in defeat. What the hell was she going to do now? She was new here! She didn't know how to get back to her hotel, let alone where the nearest auto-body shop was located. She sat up, running a hand through her hair in frustration, and almost instantly sighed in relief. For whatever reason that the Gods were against her, she was glad that they didn't hate her _that _much. Even though they made her car break down, at least she'd ended up in front of a place called 'Keith Scott Body Shop'.

Breathing a sigh of relief, she walked inside only to find the place empty, save for the sounds of faint sounds of tinkering that she heard.

"Hello?" she called out

"In a minute," called back a deeply masculine voice. Impulsively, she walked towards the voice. Peyton found someone underneath a car, long legs splayed out in a pair of simple blue jeans. However, when Mr. Blue Jeans slid out from underneath the car, she momentarily froze. She'd been expecting a middle aged, slightly older guy, not…not him! Out came a man with short blonde hair which was slightly disheveled, he had a 5o'clock shadow and grease stains on his plaid button down. Through his shirt, she could see that he had nice arms. Yeah, he was attractive. But what struck her most about him – aside from his obvious attractiveness- were his eyes. They were a deep blue, and when she met his gaze, it was electric. For a moment, neither one could look away. She took an audible breath, and that broke him out of his reverie.

"How can I help you?" he asked.

" My car broke down," she said "right outside of this place actually."

He chuckled, "Irony's a funny thing."

He got up, wiping the sweat from his brow and began walking outside, whistling when he saw her car.

"This is a nice car." He said, patting the windshield. "Let's see what's wrong."

He popped the hood and began tinkering around inside as she leaned against the door, watching him work. After about 5 minutes, he pulled his head up and said, "Well, it's your radiator that's the problem. I'll have to pull it into the shop just to take a better look."

Fuck. She was screwed. "Um, yeah sure." How the hell was she going to get anywhere?

"Alright, so just fill this out and then we'll call you when your car's ready."

Filling out the form, to anyone else, she would've appeared calm but in reality, she was panicking. She'd gotten into to town last night, and her car came this morning, the only part of town that she actually knew was around where her hotel was. How was she going to find Tric and the band that she was supposed to sign?

She handed the form back to the man and waited while he looked over it.

"You're not from around here."

She looked at him. "No, no I'm not. I'm from LA, I'm here to sign a couple bands in the area."

He smiled, " That doesn't surprise me."

"Excuse me?" she narrowed her eyes. What did that mean?

" Well, it was either something to do with music, or an artist." He said, motioning to the backseat of her car, which was covered in food wrappers, sketches that had fallen out of notebooks, and music.

"I'll let you go now. It was nice meeting you." He said, smiling genuinely.

"You too." She said while turning around. "Bye."

---------

Peyton was in her hotel room, answering the calls that she'd missed when she shut off her phone that afternoon. She'd turned it on because of her car, not wanting to go without it longer than she had to. She closed her phone and sighed in frustration. The people in LA were insufferable, they took everything she held to be true about music and flushed it down the drain. They didn't care about music the way she did, they cared only about the profits that it could bring them. She'd only gotten the opportunity to come out here because her boss had somewhere better to be, and this was a menial enough task that no one else wanted, or was too busy for. The band that she was here to sign was due to play at the local club called 'Tric' tomorrow night, and before initiating a meeting, she wanted to see what they were really like.

She got up and grabbed her sketchbook, leaving her phone and everything else connecting her to LA behind. Wandering around, she passed through the middle of town and ended up walking to a small park. Park was an overstatement; it was more like a makeshift basketball court out by the river, but it was beautiful nonetheless. She sat down on the bench, facing the river and began to sketch. This was nice, she mused. There hadn't really been any inspiration in her life for a long time, so it was nice to have something to draw again. She sat there for about half an hour, sketching the small town and somehow she ended up drawing the man that she'd met earlier at the auto body shop. She couldn't get his face out of her mind; there was something that just drew her to him. And the way that his eyes, _spoke_ to her – it was like nothing she'd ever experienced before, and it scared her. The intense electricity that surged through her body for the miniscule amount of time that their eyes locked, that really scared her, because it'd never happened before, and because she wanted it to happen again, even if she didn't admit it to herself. Even if she'd dismissed him as just another person, in her gut, she knew that she wanted to see him again.

* * *

**A/N:** This is a new story, and yes, I have gone insane. I was trying to write the next chapter of my already started OTH story, Undercover, but I ended up writing this instead. The idea hit me after three or four failed attempts at coming up with an idea for Undercover. But, that will be continued. I just needed to get my creative juices flowing again.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **I am a terrible, terrible person, I know. I haven't updated for months. Life just got in the way. But, the good news is that I have my last exam tomorrow and then SUMMER BEGINS. Summer will probably bring more frequent updates. I've had this chapter done for a while, but my beta (who is AMAZING, btw) couldn't get it back to me for a while. This chapter is actually un-betaed because she was really busy so I'm sorry if it's not excellent.

Read and leave me some love please! :)

* * *

The River Court was his sanctuary, his place to go to when he needed to get away, think or to just unwind and play some ball. Right now, he was attempting to do all three. Next Friday were the semi-finals, the game that could terminate the Ravens season if they lost, ruining their chances of winning the state championship. He was worried as hell. His best player was injured, and the rest of team was severely discouraged without Quentin.

The basketball wasn't helping his pent up frustration. He had too much of it to think straight, and the ball wasn't going in the hoop. Grabbing his iPod from the table, he left the ball on the court and started running until his thoughts were drowned out by the sounds of the music and feet hitting the pavement.

He ran 6 miles in the matter of half an hour, stopping only because his breathing was becoming increasingly shallow and labored – a sign that his heart was going into overdrive and he needed to slow down. Still breathing heavily, he went inside Karen's Café to be greeted by Nathan and Haley.

"Man," said Nathan, raising his eyebrows to look at his sweat-drenched shirt, "You really went at it hard."

"I just needed to clear my head, you know?"

Nodding in understanding, he patted Lucas on the shoulder as he headed into the back of the café. As soon as Nathan was gone, Haley silently moved over to the stool next to Lucas's and slid him a bottle of water.

She rubbed his back soothingly "Don't take it too hard."

Thankfully, both Nathan and Haley understood his need to be alone and just brood. He sat there for a while longer, getting taken out of his reverie when his mom shoved a plate of foot in front of him and forced him to eat with a withering yet compassionate glare that only Karen could manage.

Hearing the tinkle of the bell, he turned around to find the blonde from the auto shop walking right towards him.

"Hey," he said as she plopped down a stool away from him.

She groaned in response.

He chuckled, "Not a morning person?"

Shaking her head, she smiled when Karen appeared with a cup of coffee and handed it to Peyton with a smile, "Try this out, it should do the trick."

Lifting the cup up to her nose, she breathed in the aroma of coffee and sighed in contentment. After taking a sip, she exclaimed that the coffee tasted better than it smelled, and Karen smiled, clearly pleased that she'd liked the coffee so much.

"Can I get you anything else?"

"Half a bagel with strawberry cream cheese and a map of this town, please."

Both Lucas and Karen smiled. "How long are you here for?" asked Karen.

"It depends. I'm looking for some new music in the area, and maybe trying to sign a couple bands, so however long they take to agree. But I don't know my way around here, it's so small, but it's so big!"

"Alright," said Lucas suddenly, "how about when you come to pick up your car, I show you around."

She was about to agree when he held up his hand, "_But_ you let me drive."

Peyton raised her eyebrows and gave him a pointed look, "_No one_ drives my car except me."

He gave her a smirk as he stood up, "You know where I'm located. We'll call you when the car's done."

Karen stood off to the side as she watched the two interact, smiling and shaking her head.

- - - - - -

Like or not, he had been sitting at the body shop in hopes that she would show up. Peyton Sawyer, age 24. Her car was done in record time, ever since he got in the shop he'd spent all his time working on only her car, fixing up every little thing that was wrong. He even polished the outside for her. The car didn't _actually_ need to be brought into the shop, but he wanted to see her again, so he lied. A tiny little lie, just so he could some girl. Actually, he wanted to spend some more time with the car, and the girl, if he was being honest. She was pretty - very pretty - but he loved her car. He wanted to tinker with it. The fact that pretty girls like her didn't usually drive old cars like the Comet just added to another reason why he wanted to see her again. She was different.

The shop was empty, and Keith had left to go see Karen. He'd finished repairing her car and left her a voicemail indicating that it was finished and that the shop was open until eight. All the worries that had escaped him when he was working on Peyton's car came rushing back to him as he sat idly filling out paperwork. Taking a blank piece of paper, he began drawing various lineups and plays, hoping that _something _would help him fix this problem.

The entire dilemma had started when Quentin Fields had injured his hand in a game against the Fairway Point team. The Ravens had been up by twelve when the other team started unfairly fouling them, and the ref refused to call it, causing the fouls to get more unfair each time. Only when he got slammed to the floor - with his wrist pinned down the wrong way – did the referee decide to blow the whistle. The sound of Q's body hitting the floor made Lucas cringe every time he thought back to it. Claiming that nothing was wrong, he continued to play for the rest of the night – and thought they wound up winning- he ended up hurting his wrist much more. The amount of time, dedication, sweat and blood that the team put into training all seemed for naught after Q got injured. The players lost their motivation, convinced that they were nothing without him.

He was in the middle of devising a plan that probably wouldn't work, and was growing increasingly frustrated. Thankfully, the sound of the bell chiming momentarily distracted him as he waited for the person to become visible. She walked in and her face visibly relaxed when she saw him.

Before he could even get out a word, she started speaking, running her words together. "I don't know your name! I was walking here, glad because it's the one place in this town that I actually know someone, when I realized that there were probably other people working here, and I didn't know your name! I'd probably sound like an idiot trying to describe you, "tall, blonde hair with really nice blue eyes". I can't believe you didn't tell me your name! And I'm really glad that you're the one working here, and not someone else."

He looked at her with an amused expression on her face, noticing how her cheeks got the slightest tinge of red on them because she was so out of breath. She had her eyebrows raised in an expectant manner.

"So…?"

"So…?"

"Your _name_?"

"Oh. Lucas. Lucas Scott."

"I'm –"

"Peyton Sawyer, I know."

When she quirked her eyebrows in a confused manner, he added, laughing slightly. "You have to give us your name when you bring your car in for repair."

She flushed, and he decided that he really liked it when she did that. It was really sexy.

"Wait a minute," she exclaimed, "Scott as in Haley James Scott?"

He nodded, "Yeah, she's my sister-in-law."

"She's amazing. I love all of her work. Do you know if she's working on anything else?"

He shook his head, " Not really. It was…hard for her, the tour. She's teaching now and she's got a kid."

Peyton dug around in her purse and handed him her card, asking him to give to Haley because she'd love to talk music with her someday while she's in town. He smiled and put the card in his back pocket, deciding that he might just program her number into his phone while he was at it.

"I went to every one of her shows out in L.A. I even got a backstage pass for one of them, but Chris Keller – who's a dick by the way – kept flirting with me, and just being a jerk in general, so I didn't get to talk to her as much as I'd wanted."

He'd just assumed that she was going to say something _good_ about Chris Keller, but when she didn't, it just made her higher up on the list. But she got bumped up to the top of that list when there eyes locked for the first time, and it killed him to break her gaze.

"Now, about my car…"

He smirked, "Did you think about my offer some more?"

She smirked right back at him, " I've never let anyone drive my car, and you're not going to be the first. So you can forget it."

He decided to try another approach – Brooke once told him that all he needed to do was pout and he could get anything he wanted – so he tried it. "It's a classic! I've never seen a car like this before. Please?"

He saw the hesitation in her eyes for a split second before she threw a glare on her face in attempt to warn him off. "How about this? I drive but you just might get permission to touch the radio." She raised her eyebrows as she spoke, and placed her hands on her hips. Lucas took a second to study her, to _really _study her, and he knew that he would be like putty in that girl's hand from then on. She wore her hair down in soft waves that were curled gently at the ends, and a black dress that gave him a nice view of her long legs. With a light brown jacket on top, she was pretty damn hot if he did say so himself. Her green eyes though, were what really caught his attention. They were guarded but held just the right amount of tragic beauty filled with spunk that made her all the more intriguing.

"Alright," he complied, " but how I about I get _full_ control of the radio?"

"Its my car."

"Do you want to be lost and stranded here?"

She scoffed, her face revealing some irritation, " I think I can manage. If I can find my way around LA, this place should be a walk in the park."

"Can you now?" his voice was filled with amusement, and his mouth curled into a smirk that made her glower.

"Yeah, I can." She marched right past him, snatching the keys out of his hand as she went over to the Comet, unlocking the door and getting in huffily. She started it up, and throwing another glare in his direction, began to back out of the garage.

He didn't want her to leave. Leaving the garage unlocked would be fine, he reasoned to himself as he ran over to the passenger side of the car and quickly got in.

She turned to look at him with raised eyebrows and he simply shrugged, telling her to take the next right turn.

Lucas took her to the River Court and showed her the court that she said she already saw.

"I bet you haven't seen this." He said as he took her into the little patch of woods right behind the court. She marveled at the beauty of the little garden that was located inside the woods, and he took her down the makeshift path that Haley and him had made when they were younger. She loved that he was showing her things that anyone else would've never thought to mention, and he was unsure as to why he impulsively kept showing her glimpses of his life that only Haley knew about. After they spent half an hour roaming around the woods, Peyton's stomach growled loudly, and he smiled, suggesting that they should go someplace for lunch. They went to Karen's Café where Peyton and Karen formally met and Lucas's smile grew a little wider when the two were engaged in a conversation after he got back from the bathroom.

He suggested that they walk down the main street because she'd get the real tour of Tree Hill by walking. That, and maybe he could sneak a peak at her behind. They walked past a little Italian restaurant, Lucas's favorite bookstore, and the movie rental place. They were crossing the street when Peyton saw CD Alley and immediately rushed inside. He grinned as she thumbed through the albums, picking up some of his favorite ones. After ten minutes he told her that she could always come back later, and she playfully glared at him, but obliged and left but not before telling Max – the store owner, that she would definitely be back tomorrow.

Trying to drag her away from the display of clothes at Clothes over Bros, both were shocked when they heard a raspy voice shout out Lucas's full name from the entrance.

He turned around and found Brooke Davis marching down the front steps and right towards Lucas, who backed away slightly. "Why'd you have to middle name me?" he whined.

"You were just about to walk past my store and not even come in and say hi!"

"Sorry!" he exclaimed, throwing his hands up, "But your mother scares the crap out of me. Last time I came in, she called me a hillbilly and practically threw me out. It's not my fault she's the reason people are too scared to see you anymore."

Brooke laughed, "Bitchtoria scares me too, don't worry. Thank god she's in New York for the week. But that's still no excuse for not visiting. You're the man!"

He chuckled, "Come here," he said as he pulled her into a hug.

Peyton, who was never one to be ignored, stuck out her hand. "Hi, I'm Peyton."

Brooke looked a little startled for a moment, and Lucas was trying to hide a smile. Finally, she spoke. "Hi, I'm Brooke Davis."

"Oh, I know. Your face is all over LA."

"And you're wearing me!" said Brooke, motioning to Peyton's dress, "You have nice taste."

"I love your clothes." She said honestly.

"Well," began Brooke, " I have a new line coming out…" But before she could drag Peyton into the store, Lucas grabbed Peyton's wrist and began walking down the street. "We're going a tour and I am _not_ sitting through you two discussing clothes." Internally, he was thanking Brooke profusely for making a dress that gave him such a nice view of the blonde's amazing legs.

Brooke pouted, "Fine." And then she turned to Peyton, "Come by tomorrow."

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

They spent the next hour wandering around town. He pointed out Tric, the waterfront and showed her the beach. They spent the rest of the afternoon together, neither one really making an effort to get to know each other – they were both to worried about their own troubles. But the silence wasn't awkward or tense, it was just silence. Something the both of them needed at that moment. They were sitting in Peyton's car, taking in the quaint beauty of the town, when Peyton realized that she hadn't turned her phone on since last night. At the next red light, she leaned forward -her hand accidently brushing Lucas's calf – to grab her purse when Lucas spoke.

"I coach high school basketball."

Not knowing what to say, she just kept silent.

"We haven't won a single title since Nathan, Skills and I used to play on that court. This year's my first as head coach, and they were doing so well, you know? We have one more game, and if we lose then we can't compete for the state championships."

"That's a lot of pressure."

"If we lose this game, not only will I let the team down, but I think the town will finally lose hope in us. At first they were terrible players, and I didn't know if we'd be able to achieve _anything_ this season but then they stepped up to the plate, and these kids are amazing players. They just needed a little guidance."

"Doesn't everyone?" she asked wryly.

"But the worst part is, my best player is injured. And now the entire team is down, they just don't see why they should keep playing. It's like the hope has been sucked out of them, and I just can't get them to believe in it again. There's nothing I can do. We've worked so hard for this. Am I selfish for wanting this so bad? I just wanted them to feel what I felt when we won champs. That rush and that pride, and that feeling that you get when you're 17 or 18 that nobody in the history of the world has been this close. I just wanted that for them. These kids deserve it."

"So, why'd you just tell me that? I mean, we barely know each other." asked Peyton as she pulled up in front of the auto shop.

"Maybe that's the point."

He got out of the car, turning around throwing a wave in her direction before heading inside.

It was a pretty good day.


	3. URGENT AUTHORS NOTE

Dear Readers,

**T****his is NOT an update, but an URGENT author's note.**

I haven't been on FF for a while now, and this trend will probably continue for quite sometime, if not forever. I have a lot of great recommendations in my favorites, and there just isn't a way to delete an FF account, so I'm leaving everything up.

That being said, don't delete me just yet! Another reason I didn't delete was because I might just get an update for a story, but if it were gone, I couldn't update. **I MIGHT ACTUALLY UPDATE, YOU NEVER KNOW! ;)**

The reason for this inactivation is just that I've had MAD writers block for quite some time now, but also because of some personal reasons. I do love all of my readers and reviewers, and I'd like to thank you all for reading, reviewing and giving me encouragement.

FanFiction really is a great place, and I've met some GREAT people. Please, please, **PLEASE check out my favorites and my profile for some other AWESOME reads. You may actually like some of them! You never know!**

Anyways, I posted this authors note to 'alert' all of my readers to this change. But, also, (and I got this from a friend), it would be kind of cool to let one of the readers finish writing this for me. You never know. Please PM me if you are at all interested.

Okay, I'm going to wrap this up now.

**THANK YOU TO ALL MY READERS/REVIEWERS. YOU TRULY DID BRIGHTEN MY DAY WITH A SMILE EACH TIME I GOT A REVIEW!**

**Anyways, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE feel free to PM me for ANYTHING at all :)  
**

XOXOX,Music Is Love 10

**P.S. Check out STDAY, xoMUSICLOVERxo and YTSGRL on FF for some other great stories.**

**SMC27 is the BOMB for LP stories. **


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